Nolly: Giving a voice back to the Queen of the Midlands (with Russell T Davies and Nicola Shindler)
To mark the start of LGBTQ+ History Month the ITV Pridecast is back and joining Liam McConkey for this episode is none other than screenwriter Russell T Davies and TV producer Nicola Shindler. The duo have worked on an array of dramas together including, Queer as folk and It’s a Sin. Now they’re back working on the muchly anticipated ITVX mini series, Nolly.
Davies and Shindler are known for giving a voice to characters who are often stripped of it and this couldn’t be more true of Nolly. Noele Gordon, played by multi-award winning actor, Helena Bonham Carter, was the star of the hit soap opera, Crossroads. At the height of her career and the show’s success, Nolly, without any warning was unceremoniously axed from the soap. She never found out why she was sacked by the bosses at ATV, but it was a decision made by a group of male executives, towards a woman working at a time of dreadful sexism.
For Nolly, it must have been a bitter blow, especially after all she did in helping to set up ATV and what we now call daytime television. Said to be a pioneer of her day, Nolly was also a history-maker in that she was the first woman on TV to interview a British Prime Minister and has even been credited as the first woman to be seen on colour TV. Now Davies and Shindler want to shine a light on what happened to Nolly and remind people of the important part she played in the development of British Television. Nolly is available to stream on ITVX from Thursday 2nd February.
During this ITV Pridecast, Liam also chats with Davies and Shindler about some of their other productions and the impact they’ve had on the LGBTQ+ community. The pair first worked together over two decades ago when they produced the groundbreaking hit Queer as folk. The Channel 4 series told the story of three gay men living around Manchester’s Canal Street and showed the fun experienced by many people visiting the city’s gay village at that time.
Fast forward two decades and Davies and Shindler worked together to write and produce the incredibly moving, It’s a Sin. The series depicts the lives of a group of gay men who move to London during the 1980s and live through the crisis brought on by HIV/AIDs. It received critical acclaim for its incredibly powerful scenes and its accurate depiction of the epidemic. The show which aired on Channel 4 at the start of 2021, led to an upsurge in HIV testing and has done amazing things to open up the conversation about the virus.
Both Queer as Folk and It’s a Sin are available to stream on both Channel 4 and Netlfix.
Davies and Shindler are known for giving a voice to characters who are often stripped of it and this couldn’t be more true of Nolly. Noele Gordon, played by multi-award winning actor, Helena Bonham Carter, was the star of the hit soap opera, Crossroads. At the height of her career and the show’s success, Nolly, without any warning was unceremoniously axed from the soap. She never found out why she was sacked by the bosses at ATV, but it was a decision made by a group of male executives, towards a woman working at a time of dreadful sexism.
For Nolly, it must have been a bitter blow, especially after all she did in helping to set up ATV and what we now call daytime television. Said to be a pioneer of her day, Nolly was also a history-maker in that she was the first woman on TV to interview a British Prime Minister and has even been credited as the first woman to be seen on colour TV. Now Davies and Shindler want to shine a light on what happened to Nolly and remind people of the important part she played in the development of British Television. Nolly is available to stream on ITVX from Thursday 2nd February.
During this ITV Pridecast, Liam also chats with Davies and Shindler about some of their other productions and the impact they’ve had on the LGBTQ+ community. The pair first worked together over two decades ago when they produced the groundbreaking hit Queer as folk. The Channel 4 series told the story of three gay men living around Manchester’s Canal Street and showed the fun experienced by many people visiting the city’s gay village at that time.
Fast forward two decades and Davies and Shindler worked together to write and produce the incredibly moving, It’s a Sin. The series depicts the lives of a group of gay men who move to London during the 1980s and live through the crisis brought on by HIV/AIDs. It received critical acclaim for its incredibly powerful scenes and its accurate depiction of the epidemic. The show which aired on Channel 4 at the start of 2021, led to an upsurge in HIV testing and has done amazing things to open up the conversation about the virus.
Both Queer as Folk and It’s a Sin are available to stream on both Channel 4 and Netlfix.
